Authorizing Death for Anomalous Newborns

Abstract

Medical technologies that sustain life for otherwise doomed newborns bring special tensions in their wake. These technologies — fervently welcomed in most cases — also can prolong life for tragically deformed and limited infants, and this fact presses forward an old question: if, through medical science, life is within our power to maintain, does that mean there are times when we can choose to withhold life?

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